when in days of old, people wanted to hear music (because they recognized that their lives were barren without it), they would go to the town square.... It was considered a special event, an important ingredient in their lives, and the ears and mind were open and ready to invest to this pursuit of spiritual adventure.
that's a bit of a romantic vision of things; the reality is that there were other periods than ours where the concert experience was similar to what you deplore, with people talking, socializing, playing cards etc. while the performance was going on, and not just in the theatres, also in the aristocratic salons, which are usually assumed to have the pretention of a "high art" experience. and in the case of "attentive" salon listening, social convention or even social politics was quite often the main concern, to a far greater degree than the "music" itself. very early in the 19th c. this changed, of course, but at varying speeds and to varying degrees according to the centre, the proportion between aristocratic or public control of the local scene, and social layer you view the problem from, but the modern era is not the only one plagued by inattentiveness. the reasons are quite different, admittedly, but it certainly isn't as black and white as you are suggesting.
do you really think the drunk saloon patrons in the late 18th were more respectful of the musicians' playing than the drunk jazzbar patrons of today?
-- shirling & neueweise ... new music publishers mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] :.../ http://newmusicnotation.com _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
